DIY Benihana Recipes You Can Make at Home (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret ingredient to restaurant fried rice? ›

Cooking bits of chopped vegetables, seasoning, soy sauce, and oil, seems easy enough. However, when making fried rice at home, there's one ingredient you may be overlooking: Sugar.

Japanese restaurants like Benihana and Shogun typically serve a type of short-grain rice known as "Calrose rice" or simply "Japanese rice." Calrose rice is a medium- to short-grain rice variety that is commonly used in Japanese cuisine.

Once the rice is mature, each grain is harvested and carefully dried to maintain an ideal moisture level. This ensures perfect, tender and fluffy Benihana rice once it's cooked by our master teppanyaki chefs. At Benihana, creating classic flavors that guests crave means using quality ingredients for each recipe.

Typically seasoned with soy sauce. In Osaka, fried rice seasoned with Worcestershire sauce is called Sauce Yakimeshi (ソース焼き飯).

GARLIC BUTTER

THIS is the secret ingredient to Benihana's amazing fried rice! It is so simple to make (just butter, garlic, and light soy sauce) and the best part is that you can keep it in your refrigerator and use it in other dishes too!

In the United States, teppanyaki (more commonly known simply as hibachi) was made famous by the Benihana restaurant chain, which opened its first restaurant in New York in 1964. Though Benihana cooks their food teppanyaki-style, they also serve dishes such as hibachi steak and chicken.

What sauce do hibachi chefs use on rice? If you've been to a hibachi restaurant, you've no doubt seen the unlabeled plastic squirt bottles they use to season all the food. These bottles contain a variety of oils and a soy sauce or soy sauce blend that gives hibachi food its distinct flavor.

Normally, minced garlic is sautéed in butter or oil to flavor the oil. Benihana uses a compound butter where roasted garlic, sweet, whipped butter, freshly ground black pepper, soy sauce and lemon juice is mashed up with whipped butter. Many Benihana copycat recipes call for minced garlic mixed with butter.

Because of that heat, the rice is stirred and tossed constantly. That keeps it away from the center of the wok, which is where exuded moisture congregates. That ensures the rice is fried rather than simmered.

The most widely consumed rice in Japan is a cultivar of Japonica rice, a short-grain rice with a firm texture. Compared to its long-grain counterparts such as jasmine and basmati, Japonica rice is characterized by its plump shape and sticky texture that makes it easy to pick up with chopsticks.

What is the soup they serve at Benihana? ›

Japanese Clear Onion Soup

A simple light, clear soup just like the one on your local Hibachi Steakhouse menu. 9 Simple Ingredients.

Named after his parents' Tokyo coffee shop, Benihana opened in 1964, featuring an authentic Japanese farmhouse interior and food prepared on steel teppanyaki grills right in front of customers. His highly trained teppanyaki chefs delighted customers with intricate knife work and theatrics.

To get restaurant-quality fried rice at home, it's essential to use aromatics, a group of vegetables and herbs that are so named because they lend your dish a distinct aroma. Common aromatics that are used to flavor fried rice are onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, and red peppers.

In fact, the use of classic Chinese sauces is exactly what makes takeout fried rice so incredibly moreish. Key amongst these is soy sauce. By adding soy sauce during cooking chefs are adding both salt and umami to the fried rice which, unsurprisingly, greatly improves the dish's overall flavor.

Restaurants will have a long list of ingredients prepped, including stocks, sauces, lots of different spices, dark, light, and regular soy sauce, etc. Many home cooks will skimp/compromise on some of these for convenience, unless it's a special occasion.

The golden yellow color comes from the egg yolk. The method of making golden fried rice is different from classic fried rice. The egg is mixed with rice directly before stir-frying. If you want your golden fried rice to be more “yellow”, you can add more egg yolks.